Q&A: Cillian Murphy on Irish drama Small Things Like These after Oppenheimer

Cillian Murphy didn’t read Small Things Like These in search of a movie. He was simply a fan of the writer Claire Keegan.

Her Booker Prize-nominated story was historical fiction about the Magdalene laundries in Ireland and about an ordinary person with repressed trauma who can’t bring herself to look away from Christmas 1985. The beauty of the prose and the complexity of the subject stayed in Murphy’s mind. The Irish actor also thought about starting his own production company. Surprisingly, the rights were available.

In honor of the film, which opens in North American theaters on Friday, Murphy and his producing partner Alan Moloney have named their company Big Things Films.

“We thought calling it Small Things Films would show a real lack of ambition,” Murphy said with a little chuckle. “We thought it would be better to call it Big Things Films.”

Small Things Like These was made after Oppenheimer but before the Oscar win, which Murphy is still processing. However, work keeps him busy. His company already has another film in post-production – “Steve”, based on Max Porter’s novel “Shy”. And in September, he started filming in the movie “Sharp Blinds”.

Murphy spoke to The Associated Press before leaving for Sharp Blinders about “working with the show again,” the humbling and passive experience of winning the Oscar and pitching the film to Matt Damon during the night shoot of Oppenheimer. Comment edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: What made you want to see Claire’s book as a film?

MURPHY: It’s a seemingly simple story, but it’s actually incredibly complex because it deals with society and complicity and shame and guilt and secrecy and fear and all those things. I felt it had something to offer the audience.

AP: As an actor, what possibilities did you see in your character?

MURPHY: It’s a male character written by a woman, but it’s a story about women. It was quite interesting and unusual. And the story really begins when the movie ends. Then the real drama happens. And I think it’s very unconventional and quite radical. The reason Bill is the man he is is because of what happened to him as a child and the act of mercy his mother experienced. And then these horrific acts of cruelty that the other girls are subjected to are what brought him to this place in his life.

Claire actually said on the podcast that someone said, “Oh, that’s such a heroic act,” and she said, “No, he’s not a hero, he’s just having a nervous breakdown.” I thought that was very clever. And that’s how I tried to play it.

Everything comes back, as it usually happens in men, in middle age. They begin to really feel their own mortality and have children of their own. That’s when everything seems to come crashing down on them. And it’s so beautifully observed by Claire and Enda (Walsh).

AP: This film involves a lot of people you’ve worked with before, from director Tim Millants (Pointy Blinders) to your friends at Disco Pigs (playwright Enda Walsh and actress Eileen Walsh, who plays Bill’s wife). Why did you call them?

MURPHY: I’m kind of a serial collaborator. I enjoy working with people again. And I really strongly believe that you got the best job through trust and friendship. I have worked with Enda in the theater four or five times, and he is simply brilliant. I knew he loved Claire’s book and that he would understand this world. And Eileen, it’s very hard to play 20 years of history, but when you have 28 years of history, you get it for free. She is just a phenomenally strong actor. She can do everything.

AP: Matt Damon is also a producer for Artists Equity. How did it happen?

MURPHY: My producing partner worked with Matt on U2’s Sarajevo documentary, and I worked with Matt on Oppenheimer. It was a pincer movement. I remember it was like a night shoot somewhere in the desert, and we were waiting for the rain to stop or for the lights to be fixed. And he was telling me about Artists Equity. I said I happened to have this script and I gave it to him. It has such great taste. He is such a great director and actor, just a legend and just a wonderful person. He just really understands such stories. And immediately he said: yes, we participate.

AP: Do you feel like that helped the film attract US distributors?

MURPHY: I don’t know about that, actually, because it looks so brand new and so fresh. You know, it’s really hard for me to talk about because it’s been an extremely humbling and almost passive experience because you don’t really have any control over how other people vote for your work. But if it allows us to tell the kind of stories that I want to tell, that have a point of view, that have something to say, then I’ll take it.